REQUESTING THE PUBLIC EDUCATION DEPARTMENT AND THE LEGISLATIVE
EDUCATION STUDY COMMITTEE TO CONVENE A WORKING GROUP TO DEVELOP
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR A NEW STUDENT ASSESSMENT POLICY ALIGNED
WITH THE ALTERNATIVE ASSESSMENT MODELS ALLOWED BY THE FEDERAL
EVERY STUDENT SUCCEEDS ACT.

WHEREAS, the recently enacted federal Every Student
Succeeds Act empowers states to develop their own
accountability systems to measure student performance and
encourages states to begin pilot projects that use a variety of
ways to measure student success; and

WHEREAS, for states wishing to develop alternative,
evidence-based assessment systems, the Every Student Succeeds
Act creates an enhanced assessment instruments program, which
will provide funding to seven states to develop pilot programs
of innovative assessment programs that use a variety of
indicators to show how a student is performing; and

WHEREAS, applications for the pilot programs were accepted
through September 22, 2016, and it is anticipated that
additional applications will be accepted in the future; and

WHEREAS, the Every Student Succeeds Act provides states
with the flexibility to adopt high-quality academic assessments
in mathematics, reading, language arts or science, which may
allow students to demonstrate proficiency in the form of
portfolios, projects or extended performance tasks and other
locally designed formative assessments that, along with
standardized tests, create a summative score for a student; and

WHEREAS, the Every Student Succeeds Act permits local
educational agencies to choose a locally selected assessment in
lieu of the state assessment, but only if the local educational
agency "selects a nationally recognized high school academic
assessment that has been approved for use by the state"; and

WHEREAS, the Every Student Succeeds Act requires each
state to add at least one non-academic indicator of school
quality or student success as part of its statewide
accountability system, opening the door to the possibility of
using factors such as student engagement, post-secondary
readiness, school climate and safety, career readiness and
other metrics to measure student success; and

WHEREAS, at this time, New Mexico is not yet prepared to
take advantage of the flexibility provided in the Every Student
Succeeds Act and the associated pilot program funding
opportunities; and

WHEREAS, studies by learning alliance New Mexico and the
New Mexico center for school leadership show that there is a
demand throughout the state for alternative assessment models
that use a variety of approaches to measure a student's
progress; and

WHEREAS, while the New Mexico center for school leadership
is working with stakeholders to develop alternatives to the
current assessment process, that project is local to
Albuquerque, and a broader statewide effort, including
participation from the diverse communities in the state, has
not been made; and

WHEREAS, statewide studies, research and analyses are
necessary for New Mexico to be ready to propose a pilot program
and take advantage of the new flexible assessment possibilities
provided by the Every Student Succeeds Act;

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE
STATE OF NEW MEXICO that the public education department and
the legislative education study committee be requested to
convenea working group composed of educational practitioners;
academic and pedagogical researchers; community, tribal and
civic leaders; union members; industry representatives; higher
education representatives; and others who have an interest in
developing an alternative assessment model to build upon the
work that is already taking place in the state and to develop
recommendations for a new assessment policy; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the working group be requested
to report its recommendations and a proposed new assessment
policy to the legislative education study committee by November
2017; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be
transmitted to the secretary of public education and the
director of the legislative education study committee.